4 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan (After being baptised.), and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,² being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing.

Like many of you probably regularly do, I recently fasted for three days. I did however continue to drink some water. It was incredibly hard, especially the first day; no, scratch that. All of it was bad! The tougher it is to endure a fast, the stronger (or rebellious) your soul has become in relation to your spirit. You can use this as a definite benchmark.

I want you to see the temptations (Scriptures listed below) brought against Jesus in a different light. Consider these as recurring thoughts mulling in Jesus’s mind for forty days. It’s not a direct confrontation with words; it’s thought patterns that aim to distract and falter a child of God. The devil’s aim is to destroy lives, to cause pain, suffering and heartache.

³ And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

⁵ And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them… ⁷ If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

⁹ And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence.

The reason Christians fast is to humble themselves before their God, to yield their souls (intellect, will and emotions) to Him. In this way they show their dependence on Him and proclaim, to the spiritual realm, that their hopes and faith rests in Him. They will trust and wait on God to fulfil His purposes in His time and in His way.

Jesus was preparing Himself for the Cross. As He voluntarily submitted Himself to fasting, so He would be submissive in giving Himself freely, for the sake of lost mankind, By His choice, although innocent, He would endure the Cross, restrain Himself to use the spiritual power and authority at his disposal to save Himself. He did it for love and was obedient to the demands and purposes entrusted to Him by Father God.

It was only after overcoming, again and again, these temptations for forty days, that the Father allowed Jesus to start His public ministry, which we consider to be only at the age of thirty. It was as if the Father said, ‘Okay, I can see that you are faithful to My cause. I trust you to fulfil my important work’.

By the way, everything the devil tempted or promised Jesus, He accomplished, but it came after He endured the longsuffering and overcame the temptations, without yielding to pressures brought by satan.

To the second temptation, see Matthew 28:18,

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

To the third temptation see Matthew 28:1,2 and 5,6:

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb. ² And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it.

⁵ And the angel said to the women, “^[a]Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. ⁶ He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.

To the fist temptation see John 6:

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty.

⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh.

Jesus denied Himself (during His fast) so that us sinners, the spiritually dead stones, could partake in His eternal, resurrection life. Praise God.

The Christian God bless you.